Geneva Half Marathon Training – Week 1

While I often workout and run with friends, there is nothing like a husband as a workout partner to keep you accountable. Since Bo and I working out together these days, each of our workouts goes in our Outlook calendars on Sunday night, to ensure they are given priority during the week. The goal for these four weeks of training, before the Geneva Half Marathon, are to focus on strong training so that both Bo and I can be mentally and physically prepared to run a strong race on May 3rd. As we’re the same pace right now, our goal is to run the race together.

Due to the insanely gorgeous weather in Geneva, I’m opting for more evening workouts. Fresh air, flowers, sunshine, and rainbows are the perfect way to melt stress away after a long day of work.

Training with Bo gives me a competitive drive to push just a little bit harder and faster during each workout. This means that last week’s workouts were awesome! In fact, I feel like he’s my secret weapon for Geneva Half Marathon training!

Monday: We drove nine hours back from Barcelona so this was a rest day.

Tuesday: We spent the easy 45 minute run catching up and enjoying the views.  I had to watch our pace to make sure we kept it slower than a 9:45. Jess continues to stress that each run has a purpose and a way it should feel.

Wednesday: I realized during this workout that I’ve never pushed myself as hard as I should during tempo runs. If the run isn’t specifically called speed then it was treated a different way – until last Wednesday’s 5.5 mile tempo run. My office is exactly 1.5 miles from where Bo and I met the day previously, so this was a perfect way to squeeze in 15 minutes of relaxed, warm-up. As soon as I met him we started the main part of the workout, 3 miles at around 8:30 pace, followed by a mile cool down run home. Holy hell! The 3 miles burned my lungs and legs in the best way possible! There were moments during the second mile when I wanted to call it a day. Luckily, Bo was at my side pushing me just a bit faster. Our splits were 8:30, 8:02, and 8:16 – not bad for our first tempo.

Thursday: Thanks to the idiot personal trainer, my 30 minute strength training workout, which included push-ups, planks, Bosu ball sit-ups, dumbbell curls and more, was full of spirit and energy as I had a lot of negative energy to work off during the 30 minutes.

Friday: We switched things up and did a four mile progression run before work due to our schedules and Saturday morning’s long run. While the weather was perfect, our legs were fatigued. I’m not sure if it was DOMS,  but every mile felt harder than the previous. The pace was supposed to be easy for the first two miles before ramping things up to half marathon and 10k pace for the final miles. My legs didn’t quite get the memo as a 9:08 was the fastest mile I could squeak out.

Saturday: The stars aligned during our 8 mile long run, and we both felt as if we could have run another 18 miles. I realize every long run won’t be as perfect as this one, but man was it awesome!

Sunday: We dusted off our road bikes and did an hour ride through the same countryside we ran through the day before.  I was a bit unsteady so only clipped in my left foot as the last thing I wanted to do was bust a move.

Total Miles: 22                                Total workouts: 6 

Your turn: What was your favorite workout last week?